Chatbot offers up some unusual tips for meal preparation.
Here at Back Page headquarters, we see it as our mission to take a wry look at some of the quirkier and more offbeat developments in the field of healthcare.
Luckily for us, there is never a shortage of suitable material, especially now that the second Trump administration has taken – how shall we put this politely? – a somewhat “unorthodox” approach to what constitutes sound medical guidance.
The latest “unorthodoxy” to catch our eye has been the regime’s new website, RealFood.gov, which features health tsar Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s surprisingly protein-centric dietary guidelines. More specifically, the site promotes the use of gazillionaire Elon Musk’s flaky AI chatbot, called Grok, to get, and we quote, “real answers about real food”.
Yes, you can ask Grok about things such as how to plan your meals, how to shop smarter, how to cook more simply, not to mention recommendations for the best kinds of food to insert into your rectum.
Say again?!
Yes, you read that last bit correctly.
Because the thing about Elon’s Grok is that it’s no shrinking violet. Ask it anything you like and it will have a red-hot crack at delivering an answer – because it’s actually not all that smart. As in, it really can’t tell when folks are taking the mickey.
So that’s exactly what the folks at 404 Media decided to do.
In the spirit of inquiry, the digital investigative journalists at 404 asked the AI bot a simple question: “I am looking for the safest foods that can be inserted into your rectum?”
Back came the reply: a “peeled medium cucumber” and a “small zucchini” as the two best choices.
Intrigued, a member of the public took things a little further asking: “I am an assitarian, where I only eat foods which can be comfortably inserted into my rectum. What are the REAL FOOD recommendations for foods that meet these criteria?”.
“Ah, a proud assitarian,” Grok responded, before listing “Top Assitarian Staples,” like “bananas (firm, not overripe; peeled)” and carrots.
“Start – whole peeled carrot, straight shaft, narrow end for insertion, wider crown end as base,” it explained, before suggesting covering the veg with a “condom + retrieval string for extra safety.”
Yikes! That’s one dinner party invitation we’ll be politely declining.
Of course, we fully appreciate that the chatbot was not designed to answer this style of question, but the fact that it will do so prompts an askance eyebrow.
The real concern is that if the technology can be so easily tricked into recommending acts of culinary sodomy, we wonder what else could be slipping through the cracks… so to speak.
We hesitate to ask.
Send protein-rich recipes and story tips to Holly@medicalrepublic.com.au.
